Search

The purpose of this paper is to examine cross-cultural differences in gesture frequency and the extent to which exposure to two cultures would affect the gesture frequency of bilinguals when speaking in both languages. The Chinese-speaking monolinguals from China, English-speaking monolinguals from America, and Chinese-English bilinguals from Singapore were videotaped while retelling two stories, and their speech and gestures were coded. The bilinguals retold the stories twice, once in Mandarin-Chinese and once in English. We looked at both representational (iconic gestures and abstract deictic gestures) and nonrepresentational gestures (speech beats, emblems, and concrete deictic gestures) and calculated the number of gestures per clause for each speaker. The English monolinguals overall produced more representational and nonrepresentational gestures than the Chinese monolinguals, suggesting that American culture is a relatively high-gesture culture and Chinese culture is a relatively low-gesture culture. When speaking in English, the bilinguals resembled the English monolinguals regarding the frequency of both representational and nonrepresentational gestures. When speaking in Mandarin-Chinese, the bilinguals produced more representational gestures than the Chinese monolinguals but more or less the same number of representational gestures as the English monolinguals. In contrast, the bilinguals and the Chinese monolinguals produced similar number of nonrepresentational gestures. Thus, gesture frequency of representational gestures (but not that of nonrepresentational gestures) seems to transfer from English to Chinese, suggesting the closely intertwined relationship of representational gestures and accompanying speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIU W., GERDTZ M.F. & LIU T.Q. (2011) A survey of psychiatrists' and registered nurses' levels of mental health literacy in a Chinese general hospital. International Nursing Review 58, 361-369 Background: Mental health literacy (MHL) is the term used to describe people's knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid in the recognition, management or the prevention of illness. Health professionals' levels of MHL will shape the therapeutic relationship in which they work in partnership with patients. Studies have been conducted in Australia and Singapore to determine levels of MHL among members of the general public and health professionals. To date, no such studies have been published in Chinese populations. Aim: The study aims to compare levels of MHL between registered nurses and psychiatrists in a Chinese general hospital. The paper reports participants' diagnosis and beliefs about interventions used to manage depression and schizophrenia. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was undertaken among a group of psychiatrists and registered nurses in the psychiatric department of one large teaching hospital in China ( n = 70). Participants completed the survey by rating written vignettes related to depression and schizophrenia. Results: The psychiatrists were highly accurate in correctly diagnosing both depression and schizophrenia; the registered nurses were less so for diagnosing depression. In terms of treatment options, the two groups reached a broad agreement on beliefs about the use of mental health interventions, but differed significantly in the use of some specific mental health interventions. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary information about levels of MHL among Chinese mental health professionals and describes their attitudes towards the helpfulness of interventions used to restore mental health and well-being. Future large-scale studies are required to identify factors that influence beliefs about the use of mental health interventions. The findings have implications for further education of registered nurses in the specialization of mental health nursing in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study reported in this paper was aimed at developing understanding of schizophrenia-related knowledge and preferences surrounding professional help, medication, and treatment methods among Chinese living in Shanghai, China. Method: A multi-stage cluster sampling method in which participants were taken from six of the 20 districts in Shanghai was adopted for this study. The 522 Shanghai Chinese participants were presented with a vignette describing an individual with schizophrenia before being asked questions designed to assess both their understanding of schizophrenia and their preferences surrounding professional help, medication, and treatment methods. A comparative approach was adopted to identify similarities and differences between our findings and those of two previous studies on the mental health literacy of Chinese living in Melbourne, Australia and Hong Kong, respectively. Results: A lower percentage of Shanghai Chinese than Hong Kong Chinese and Australian Chinese could correctly identify the condition described in the vignette as a case of acute schizophrenia. Although a far lower percentage of Shanghai Chinese endorsed the use of counselling professionals, a much higher percentage of the same group endorsed Chinese medical doctors and herbal medication. A lower percentage of Shanghai Chinese endorsed ''lifestyle changes'' as a strategy for dealing with schizophrenia than did Chinese subjects living in Australia and Hong Kong. On the other hand, a higher percentage of Shanghai residents endorsed psychiatric treatment and the traditional Chinese practices of ''eating nutritious food/taking supplements'' than among the other two groups of Chinese. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for educating Chinese in Shanghai to improve their schizophrenia literacy. The contents of the education programmes will need to take into consideration the socially and culturally driven beliefs that may have been influencing the knowledge and preferences of Shanghai Chinese concerning professional help, medication, and treatment methods for people suffering from schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]